


Snug

by PinkPenguinParade



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Angst and Feels, Anxious Aziraphale (Good Omens), Aziraphale Loves Crowley (Good Omens), Crowley Loves Aziraphale (Good Omens), Emotional Support Snake Crowley (Good Omens), Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Overwhelmed Aziraphale, Short One Shot, Snake Crowley (Good Omens), Snektember 2020, Sometimes you need a good long hug dammit, South Downs Cottage (Good Omens), can be read as asexual, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:01:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26554768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkPenguinParade/pseuds/PinkPenguinParade
Summary: Aziraphale needs a little comfort. Crowley is happy to oblige, but first he has to figure out what he's being asked--languages evolve, too, and he's not used to Aziraphale being ahead of him there.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 149





	Snug

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Snugs, or Snake Hugs](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24273478) by [lyricwritesprose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lyricwritesprose/pseuds/lyricwritesprose). 



"Crowley, dear?"

Crowley looked up from the bulbs he was planting. Aziraphale had come out without him noticing, and now stood quite close in the shade of the apple tree, shifting his weight, hands dancing.

"What is it, angel?" he said, shaking dirt off his fingers.

"I believe--I think--I would quite like a snug," Aziraphale said.

"You want to what?"

"A snug, you don't have to make fun of me--" he broke off at what must have been an expression of complete crogglement on Crowley's face. "Oh, I'm sorry, were you asleep after all? You know I can't tell when you're dozing on the shelves..."

Crowley stood up and took a step forward, put his hands on Aziraphale's arms in a way he hoped was comforting. "Angel. I want to give you what you want, but I don't know what that is."

"Oh, you remember, back a few weeks ago when I was taking one of my shop days and you were dozing on the shelves? We had that group of students in studying, and they were talking about different things with snakes. And for each one they give it a new name, replacing the first few letters with SN because it was _snakes,_ you know." He smiled. “They thought you were quite handsome.”

"Ohhh... kay," Crowley said. He vaguely remembered some variety of young person being about in quantity the last time they'd gone to London so that his angel could pretend to have open hours on his shop, but the kids had been chill and no one had offered any danger so he mostly coiled up on the stacks and slept through it.

"So a snake break became a sneak, which everyone thought was quite funny, and a snake nap became a snap, and so on in that vein. And really, I absolutely draw the line at snuddles; it's simply too ridiculous. But then someone said well what about a hug? and someone else said, well, a snake hug would be a snug! And I quite like that, just the thought of it makes me feel warm and comforted and, well, snug. So I'd quite like one. A snake hug. If you don't mind."

He was babbling, which frankly Crowley had always thought was adorable, but this clearly wasn't the time to just look at him and enjoy how adorable his Angel was. This was an Aziraphale who was already nervous and concerned... And was asking him for a hug.

Or a snug, rather, he supposed.

He stuttered for a second, trying to come up with something to say that might be comforting, and then realized that he didn't have to. A request was on the table and he had no real objection to it - it might be nice, even. "Tell me if it's too tight," he said.

He'd have to be larger than he usually manifested, but that wasn't a problem, really, just something to remember as he took a breath, leaned into his husband, and _changed._

"Oh," Aziraphale breathed as Crowley slithered around him.

Crowley froze. "Okay, angel?"

"Oh. Oh yes. That's lovely."

Reassured, he continued winding himself around his angel.

"You could be a bit tighter, love, and I really wouldn't mind," Aziraphale said. There was a tremble in his voice that hadn't been there before, he was almost certain.

Regardless, he tightened--pulling in his muscles and squeezing. He wasn't by nature a constrictor, but he wasn't by nature a gardener at first, either, and if a constrictor was what Aziraphale needed then a constrictor is what he would be.

Aziraphale gave a little sigh, or maybe it was a gasp--a confusing stutter of breath that made Crowley want to protect him at the same time as it flirted with his prey responses. He twisted in the middle of his winding so that he could get a look at his angel's face.

Aziraphale's eyes were closed. The look on his face was at first glance peaceful, but when Crowley looked closer he realized that there was an underlying strain of misery there, tears starting to cling to those pale eyelashes.

Crowley hesitated for another second. Aziraphale had nodded, before, when he said to say something if it was too tight, hadn’t he? He was sure he'd seen a nod. And this, this didn't look like distress, at least not physical distress. All put together, he was almost, _almost_ certain that whatever was making his love miserable, it wasn't something he was doing.

Which, he supposed, made a bit of a nice change.

"Remember, you have to say if it's too much," he said quietly by way of reminder and reassurance for himself.

"I will," Aziraphale said without opening his eyes, voice cracking. "I am, rather."

"It's too much?" Crowley had only just begun tightening again, and he paused one more time.

"It is, yes. Not you, though. You're lovely and this is everything I wanted." He wasn't moving--probably couldn't, really. Crowley had taken his direction well.

"Good?" Crowley said, and bumped his snout in a glancing caress against Aziraphale's cheekbone. "Or more?" He didn't want to mess this up, felt very much as though they were on the edge of something important here. "Or, or less if you want--"

"More, please," he said, voice small and shallow. "You won't harm me. I'm quite sturdy."

He didn't much like that, the breathlessness of it, but he also knew that his angel _was,_ in fact, quite sturdy. And they'd had discussions both ways about trusting each other to know their limitations and, well, trusting each other in general for that matter.

So instead of arguing, he took another breath and slowly squeezed.

Aziraphale's breath stuttered, high and small, and Crowley looked at his face again just in time to see tears finally overspill those closed eyes. "Yes," he said, just the faintest exhalation that could be understood as a word, as assent.

Crowley held there, wrapped around the one being in any realm that he always had time for, that he would do anything for. He felt the fluttering, stuttering breath against his coils, he held through the mild burn of tears splashing onto his scales (because how could angelic tears ever be anything but slightly holy?).

He liked this, he realized. Not that Aziraphale was in distress or crying--never that--but he liked surrounding him. He liked holding his angel tight and secure, and he liked knowing that he was free to do so.

So he held and he held some more--until his serpentine muscles started to burn, and still he held.

Aziraphale let out his breath in a whoosh, tension abruptly departing his body just as Crowley was starting to tremble more than he could control. "Yes," he said again--louder this time, steadier. When Crowley looked at his face, he could see that the tears that had been steadily spilling from his eyes seemed to have stopped.

"You sure, angel?" he asked, although he was relaxing despite himself, his shaking body taking this as permission to loosen now.

"Oh, yes," Aziraphale said. He shook himself slightly, twisted his head so that he could drop a gentle kiss onto the nearest bit of Crowley he could reach. "Thank you very much, my dear. That was, that was _exactly_ right."

Crowley unwound unsteadily, muscles screaming. Aziraphale caught him in strong sunshine-warm hands and lowered him gently to the ground.

He writhed around himself, hissing and trying to stretch his body before giving up and slipping back into human. "Aaah," he said, stretching his neck side to side.

"Oh! Oh, was that too much? I'm so sorry--"

"Don't apologize. Just haven't used those muscles for a while." He had apparently shifted back so that he was seated on the ground, and he waved the arm in the air until his angel caught it and gave him a hand up.

"Oh, do come inside then! I shall draw you a bath, a nice soak will do you good. That was frightfully long."

"Nah. I'm okay." He cracked his neck side to side one last time as if to prove it (or prove himself a liar, possibly; even he wasn't sure which). "You, ah, maybe want to talk to me about that, though? You don't have to," he added hastily. "Only I thought you might want to."

"Oh." Aziraphale laughed a little, self-deprecating. "I feel a little silly, actually. Mountains out of molehills and all."

_Any molehill makes you shake like that damn well_ is _a mountain,_ Crowley thought, but he wasn't sure if it would be helpful to say so he merely pasted on his best 'I'm listening' look and watched his angel.

"I'm not sure if I should tell you."

"Did you get a missive? Someone come to visit and slipped past me? Some communication from--" he flipped his eyes towards the skies-- "that I should be aware of?"

"No, nothing like that." Aziraphale stood for a moment longer; his hands found each other again to resume their fidgeting . "It's just... Oh, it's just, it's all so very much, isn't it?"

"That's a pretty broad statement, but.... yes?" His body had finally stabilized so, now he had arms again, he reached out and pulled Aziraphale into them.

"Just, this. The cottage, and the garden, and you... It's all I wanted, really. For so long. And, and now I have it, and I couldn't help wondering what I was doing wasting so much time when I could have this, when I could have _you."_

"Well I could be wrong, but I think probably we actually had to go through Armageddon to make it work."

"Probably." He laughed, hollowly. "I couldn't imagine, imagine _Michael_ visiting me here, or Gabriel popping in. It made it all feel so fragile." He sighed, hid his face in the corner of Crowley's neck.

"So.... All too much?" 

“Indeed,” came the muffled reply.

“Well you can have a snug whenever you want. I think we've got a pretty good thing here, and I want you to be happy.”

Aziraphale raised his head. “Oh, thank you Crowley. I love it here with you and I don't want my, my history to make it bad.”

“I think the phrase is, everyone's got baggage.”

“That... does actually make quite a lot of sense.” The angel rested his head on Crowley’s shoulder again, but gently now, a forehead nudge rather than that desperate burying of a moment ago. “Thank you again. It was so very nice to be held so tightly, to be just _surrounded_ by you.”

“Shut it,” Crowley said out of habit, but there was no heat to it. “Let's get you inside and get you some tea. In the kitchen.” He grinned. “Where it's snug.”

“I'm going to hear about this forever, aren't I?” Aziraphale said, but he let go, only holding on to Crowley’s hand as they walked back inside.

“We can even get you one of those blankets with the sleeves.”

“I’m not cold; it’s summer.”

“And then you can have a snuggie.”

“I will smite you, you know.”

“No, you won't.”

“No, I won't. But you owe me tea. And another snug.”

“Anything you want, angel.”

**Author's Note:**

> Not a specifically Snektember prompt (unless it is, I can't find the list right now) but definitely snektember inspired. Also heavily inspired by Lyricwritesprose's lovely work in 'Snugs, or Snake Hugs'--although I hope I'm sufficiently materially different here to have made it worthwhile writing, I was captivated by the idea of being so enfolded and encircled. (meanwhile, go read Lyric's work. All of it. It's just too lovely.)
> 
> I have a couple pieces in beta, but this one just sort of manifested and jumped the queue. Minimally beta'd, with a couple welcome suggestions by LastSaskatchewanPirate and LigeiaSaintGermaine, and any remaining issues are totally my fault and not theirs. 
> 
> I'm bad at replying to comments sometimes, especially detailed ones, which tend to leave me running circles around my house waving my arms in the air rather than sitting at my keyboard and making words like a functioning adult, but know that all comments are read and loved.
> 
> Y'all be safe out there.


End file.
